Self-Driving Cars: All you need to know

Self-driving cars are getting quite the hype these days, and deservingly so. The advent of these autonomous vehicles could revolutionize our very transport system making our lives easier and safer, on the whole.

In this article, we will discuss the different aspects of self-driving cars in thorough details for your reference. So let’s begin without any further ado.

The Technology

Modern self-driving cars are based on 4 different technologies, namely:

Radar technology,

LIDAR technology,

Ultrasonic, and

Passive visual technology.

Let’s take a closer peek at these four now.

Radar Technology

Radar technology utilizes radio waves for the object, velocity, and angle determinations. It has a decent range but low resolution and is suited well for close range object detection.

LIDAR Technology

“LIDAR” stands as the acronym for Light Detection and Ranging.

Similar to the radar technology highlighted up above, the LIDAR technology uses laser light for object identification and distance measurements.

LIDAR is exceptionally good at detecting speed and distance up to a range of 200 meters in the light or the dark.

Downsides of the LIDAR technology:

Unlike radar, LIDAR’s not very good at detecting close objects.

LIDAR would not work well in the rain, fog, or dust.

LIDAR cannot distinguish between color and contrast.

Ultrasonic Technology

The ultrasonic system uses ultrasonic sound waves for distance calculations.

Ultrasonic sensors are effective for close range detection and can work fairly well in all-weather conditions. But these sensors don’t have the same range as that of radar or LIDAR.

Passive Visual Technology

Passive visual technology uses a combination of cameras and sophisticated image-recognition algorithms to comprehend what the cameras are seeing.

This system can detect contrast, color, and resolution better than any other system.

For complete details on functionalities of the above-mentioned technologies, refer to the infographic below:

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Kent Charlie is associated with a vehicle registration agency that also deals with the personal number plate design. He has also been writing for many online publications on a freelance basis. Kent loves travelling and adventure riding, which he often does alone. Collecting heritage car number plates is one of his favorites and he takes pride of that. He takes inspiration from Plates4Less which sells number plates for vehicles.